“Look, alive lads! We’re here.” Two of the crewmen threw ropes on the dock while another two jumped on the dock to grab them and secure the ship. Silas looked out over the bustling town and sighed. “Well Alonzo, I’m not gonna lie. After what happened on the Treasure Fleet, I wasn’t sure that I would ever be able to lay eyes on Kingston ever again.”

Alonzo nodded. “Boy ain’t that the truth.” The two of them jumped onto the dock. “Come on, let’s go find the others. I’m sure us sailing into port without a flag is going to attract some attention.” Alonzo said, looking around.

Silas nodded. “Yeah, good thinking.” He turned back to the crew. “Alright lads, watch the ship, we’ll be back in a little bit.” He said before the two of them turned back and went on their way.

Silas and Alonzo opened the door to the small tavern and walked in. Three men sitting at the bar turned around as the entered and stopped before smiling. “Well, I’ll be damned, I wasn’t sure we’d see you again. Get over here you two.” One of the men said.

Another one nodded as the two men joined them. “I’m not gonna lie you two. When we saw you get surrounded by those Spanish soldiers, we thought you were done for. What happened anyways?” He asked.

Silas laughed. “Oh, it’s quite the tale. After you three bruisers abandoned us, we were brought to the Treasure Fleet. We were there for a quite a while until a hurricane came, we used it as an opportunity to escape, we took over one of the gunboats and sailed away just before the Treasure Fleet was smashed against the shore.”

One of the men spit out the rum he was drinking. “The Treasure Fleet was destroyed?” Silas nodded. “Aye, it was a bloody mess. Anyway, the storm eventually destroyed our ship. And when I came to, there were British soldiers scouring the wrecks who took me, prisoner. They were going to take me to Kingston where I assume I’d be rotting in a cell for the rest of my life. Luckily they met up with another ship that had Alonzo held prisoner. So they put us together and we went on to Kingston. But then the damnedest thing happened. The ship was attacked by Charles Vane.”

One of the men looked at him with an eyebrow raised. “Really? How did you know it was him?”

Silas chuckled. “Oh trust me, Miles, if you were there, you would’ve known it was him. But he gave us a lift back to Nassau where we got a crew and stole a schooner to come back here.”

One of the men smiled. “So you’re a captain then are you Silas? Is that what the new outfit is about?”

Silas nodded. “Aye, I figured if I’m gonna be a captain I might as well look the part. Surely you’d know all about that wouldn’t you Sam?”

Sam ignored him. “Well if you’re gonna be a captain, then I’m gonna teach you how to take a ship properly.”

Silas gave him a look. “I know how to take a ship, Sam, we took all kinds of ships together, remember?”

Sam nodded. “That’s true, aye. But there’s a huge difference between joining a raid and leading one. So come on, let’s see this ship of yours.” He turned back to the other man. “Parker, I’ll meet you later.”

Parker nodded. “Aye, have fun teaching the amateur.”

Sam laughed as the three of them arrived at Silas’ ship. “This is your ship? It’s puny.” He couldn’t contain his laughter.

“Oh sure, laugh it up now. Because soon enough, I’ll be the most feared pirate in the West Indies.”

Sam finally stopped laughing. “Well have you named her yet?”

Silas shook his head. “I don’t intend on keeping her, there are bigger and better ships out there.”

Sam shrugged. “Alright, I guess that’s fair. Let’s set sail shall we?” They all got on the ship and set sail.

Silas smiled as he inhaled. “You smell that, boys? That’s the smell of possibility.”

Sam sniffed. “Smells like sea salt to me.”

Silas laughed. “Oh come on Sam think about it, this is the beginning of a new chapter.”

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Sam looked at him. “That’s true, aye. Becoming the captain of a ship is a notable experience in any man’s life. Especially when someone becomes a captain at such a young age as yourself. Tell me, Alonzo, why didn’t you step up and become captain of this ship?”

Alonzo shrugged. “I just thought that Silas would do a better job than I would that’s all.”

Sam nodded. “Alright, I’ll buy that.” He looked over to Silas and handed him a spyglass. “Here, that'll come in handy. Now, find us a ship to take.”

Silas nodded and opened up the spyglass, putting it to his eye and scanning the horizon. “There, a British merchant’s schooner.” He pointed slightly to the right as he collapsed the spyglass.

Sam nodded. “Alright, good eye. Let’s take her then, shall we?”

Silas looked at the crew. “Whaddyou say, lads?” They all cheered and Silas nodded. “Good that’s the answer I want to hear. Now load the cannons!”

They went in to get closer, eventually, they were practically right alongside them. Silas looked over at the merchant’s ship. “Fire!” He yelled. There were several loud booms as the cannons unloaded their shots into the hull of the ship. Silas then got a little bit of distance between the two of them.

“We’re ready to fire sir!” One of the crewmen shouted. Silas angled the ship so it was parallel to the merchants’ ship. Once more he gave the order to fire. And the shots all connected. However, by this time the merchants had their cannons loaded and were returning fire. Everyone ducked down and braced themselves as the cannonballs smashed into their hull. Silas spun the ship around so they were facing the merchants head on. “Load the chain shot!” He yelled. As they got closer and closer he waited. Until finally the crew gave the word. Silas told them to open fire and the shots tore right through the merchants’ sails, leaving them immobilized. “Ready the grappling hooks men!” Two of the crewman grabbed the hooks, ready to throw them. Just as they were about to smash into the merchants’ ship, Silas spun them around, once again making the two ships parallel with each other. “Now! Grappling hooks away! Bring up the sails! Prepare to board lads.” The hooks caught themselves along the rails and they started pulling the two ships together. Silas drew his sword and pistol from his belt and ran to the side of the ship, Sam and Alonzo joined him.

As soon as the two ships were close enough, Silas sprung forward, blasting one of the soldiers on board in the face with his flintlock. The rest of the crew followed close behind. It didn’t take long for the soldiers on board the ship to surrender. Sam leaned into Silas’ ear. “Now watch and learn boy.” The crew had put all the merchants on their knees in front of them. Sam stood up straight and smiled. “Good afternoon gentlemen, my name is Captain Watson, and this is my crew.” He started moving among the merchants. “As you can probably tell, we’re here to steal your goods. So this can go one of two ways. You can either cooperate with us and we can all be on our way, or we can kill you and leave with your goods anyways.” The merchants all looked at each other.

One of them stood up, his hands still tied behind his back. “You filthy pirate, you’ll hang for this!” Sam smiled and nodded to Silas. He nodded back and put his pistol to the merchant’s head.

“Look, mate, I’m feeling generous. So I’m gonna give you one more chance to cooperate.” The merchant simply spat in Sam’s face. Without hesitation Silas pulled the trigger, sending the merchant’s corpse crumbling to the ground.

They started loading the supplies from the merchant’s schooner onto their ship. Silas looked at Sam. “Is that everything?”

He nodded. “I reckon so.”

Silas looked out at the sea. “Alright, let’s get going then.” He said as he went to take the wheel.

“Captain! There’s brig heading this way, they’re flying British colors!” One of the crewmen hanging on the rigging yelled. Silas looked over the stern and cursed under his breath. Before he could say anything, the brig fired chase cannons at them, tearing right through the main mast which sent it tumbling down onto the deck of the ship. He looked over the deck at the crew.

“All right lads. Prepare to be boarded. There’s only one way out of here and that’s on that brig. So get ready!”

Everyone grabbed muskets and swords waiting for the brig to pull up alongside them. As soon as they were in range, they started shooting. Silas looked at the deck of the brig and he noticed a barrel of gunpowder. He grabbed his pistol and took aim. Luckily for him, he hit it, which caused an explosion, sending British soldiers everywhere. “Come on, lads, let’s get ‘em!” Silas grabbed his sword and jumped onto the deck of the brig. The crew followed behind him. They all cut down soldiers one by one eventually Silas made his way to the upper decks where the captain was barking orders. As soon as the two made eye contact they rushed toward each other, swords locking. The two went back and forth, both going on offense and defense. They got into a sword lock, which allowed the captain to fling Silas’ sword out of his hand. But as he moved in to make the last blow, Silas grabbed the hilt of his sword turning it around and plunging it through his chest.

Upon seeing their captain fall to the ground dead, the crew of the brig all surrendered. Silas looked at them from the upper deck. “All right gentlemen here’s how this is gonna go, you’re going to either work for us, and live the life of a free man, or we can kill you, take your pick.”

To Silas’ surprise, all of the remaining soldiers all stood up. He smiled. “Excellent choice. All right then lads, welcome to the crew. Now weigh anchor, we’re setting sail for Kingston.”

As they started to sail back Sam climbed up onto the upper decks. “So it looks like you got your wish.”

Silas looked at him, confused. “Pardon?” Sam sat on the rail of the ship. “Earlier today, you said you wanted a bigger ship, well it looks like you got your wish. So are you gonna keep her?”

Silas looked up and down the deck. “I reckon so, aye.” Sam smiled. “You thought of a name yet?”

Silas nodded. “Actually I have, I’m calling her The Morning Star.”

Sam nodded. “A fine name for a fine ship. Let’s head home then.”

Silas smiled. “I couldn’t agree more.”